Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There should be a wide-scale review of professional qualifications. I know there are a small minority of teaching qualifications where one can qualify as part of the primary degree, and the student both studies the subject and does the teacher training at the same time. Most students traditionally did a higher diploma in education, although a masters degree is now required. While it is great that our young professionals are very highly educated, the truth is that this is adding massively to the cost of their education at a time when their wages are likely to be lower than the wages their predecessors could earn when they graduated. It is something we need to be conscious of because we are putting many burdens on the young people of this country and certain sectors are perhaps not willing to share the burden. We need to be careful. This is part of a wider debate on fees, student loans and so on, and we need to watch what burdens we are putting on young people. In my view, we are adding a heavy burden and it is certainly worth looking at again.

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